Acoustics for Autism: Poormercy revives decades-old song for CD

The end of “Ides,” a track by Poormercy featured on Project iAm’s Acoustics for Autism benefit CD, features a sample of actor Charlie Chaplin.

“[He says] ‘I don’t want to be a judgmental person. I don’t want to be a dictator. I don’t want to be an emperor. There’s room for everyone.’ You don’t have to have any one big ego, if you will,” said Poormercy band member Shawn Daley.

The track was recorded in 2004 by Poormercy, which formed in 2003 but has been on hiatus since 2007. It was written for an EP the band promoted during a nationwide battle of the bands contest for Fuse.

“The winner won a recording contract and we got nothing,” Daley said. “The song kind of was fitting. You always have to be better, faster, stronger [and] you have to meet all these criteria to be the best but you’re never going to be good enough and, sure enough, it was life imitating art.”

Daley said everyone faces being told that they’ll never be enough, but he says there’s room for everyone.

“The mentality going into that session … [was] the mythological idea of pushing the boulder up a mountain; that was the starting point for that track,” Daley said.

Daley said it was an “incredible honor” to be included on the Acoustics for Autism benefit CD. He’s been familiar with the program and will be involved with the event later this year.

“I’m the DJ that warms the crowd up before the headliner,” Daley said.

Daley said the CD project highlights talent. He added that the people involved deserve to have the spotlight shone on them.

“I’ll give every ounce of resource that I have [to this],” he said. “If I can inspire someone else to do the same, then they can inspire someone to do the same and the next thing you know, it’s not just a hobby or a side project, it turns into a movement. It actually can change people’s lives.”

Today, Daley is working on unreleased music and hopes to debut an album “in the near future.”